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The King in Yellow
The King in Yellow - - I.i - (A balcony of the palace in Hastur, overlooking the Lake of Hali, which stretches to the horizon, blank, motionless and covered with a thin have. The two suns sink toward the rippleless surface. - (The fittings of the balcony are opulent; but dingy with time. Several stones have fallen from the masonry, and lie unheeded. - (CASSILDA, a Queen, lies on a couch overlooking the Lake, turning in her lap a golden diadem set with jewels. A servant enters and offers her a tray, but it is nearly empty: some bread, a jug. She looks at it hopelessly and waves it away. The servant goes out. - (Enter Prince UOHT.) - - UOHT: O, this unending and most dreary siege! -- - Madame my mother, is it you? Good-day. - CASSILDA: Good-day to you, boy; and good-bye to day. - UOHT (to himself): She is distracted; I will talk with her - What, all alone here on your balcony? Looking on Carcosa again, I fear. - CASSILDA: No one can gaze on Carcosa, my boy, - Before the rising of the Hyades - Will chase away the shadows of the day. - Nay, I but gazed across the cloudy waves - Of dim Hali that drowns so many days... - UOHT: And we shall see it drown full many more! - This night-mist breathes contagion vile; it crawls - In every nook and cranny like a spy, - Or some foul, sly assassin: come inside. - CASSILDA: Ah, no; ah, no; not now, Uoht. I fear - Me not thy crawling mist, contagions vile, - Nor craven spy, nor skulking murtherer; - Nor least of all am I afraid of time, - Assassin of assassins! I have seen a lot of Halis mist, and much of time. - UOHT: O, Hali, this interminable siege! - Would that thy Lake would drink tall Alar down - For once, instead of endless days. - CASSILDA: Hali - Cannot do that, since Alars throned on Dehme, - And Dehme is quite another lake indeed. - UOHT: One lake is very like another lake, - O mother mine! Black water and grey fog, - With white bones under, where drowned sailors sleep - In beds of oozy slime; their cold numb flesh - Nibbled by fish, they lie on heaps of pearls-- - Aye, fog and water; water, fog. Alar - And Hastur could change sites between two dawns, - No one would notice. O, they are the two - Worst situated cities in the world-- - CASSILDA (ironically): They are the only cities in the world, - Thus the worst situate. - UOHT: Save Carcosa. - CASSILDA: ... What? Did you speak, Uoht? - I weary of the wordy games, - Nor am I any longer sure at all - That Carcosa is really in the world: - Mayhap it slipped its mooring, bent adrift - Deep into Nightmares deathly, dark domain-- - At all events, my pretty prince, it boots - Us little, all this idle talk - (CAMILLA enters) - CAMILLA: O, I-- - CASSILDA: Come in, Camilla; come, Camilla, hark! - We have not any secrets anymore, - For schemes and plots and plans and all device - Have now worn old and thin, till time hath stopped. - (THALE enters) - THALE: More of your nonsense, mother mine? - CASSILDA: If so, - It likes you well to call it thus, O Thale. - While as for poor Cassilda, as for me, - Why, I am but a Queen, a pale, sad, Queen, - And can be mocked to make your pleasure-- - THALE: No! - I swear me that I never meant to mock - My font and origin of being; no! - UOHT: Well: mockery or no, Prince Thale has struck - The true word truer spoke. Nonsense, I say! - Time does not wear away, till, old and thin, - It stops. For Time is adamant; at least, - Its endless, weary hours weigh like lead. - How can time stop? Tis time that measures change, - And change will change forever; labile time! - To stop would time but contradict itself, - And how might times self contradict-- - CASSILDA (wearily): Time stops. - There is an interval of weary pause, - When all the world grinds to a groaning rest, - And catches breath; time stops, O Uoht, stops - When one has heard every banality - Said over every banal time again. - And when has anything new happened here - In banal, boring, dusty, gray Hastur? - New words, new thoughts, new faces, forms, - Or aught we have not heard and seen and touched - Ten thousand, thousand times ere now? The Siege, - As yourself so repeatedly observes, - Is utterly interminable. Thats that. - Neither Hastur nor Alar shall prevail; - It shall be stalemate till the dull world sinks - And drowns in dust; well both wear down to dust-- - Or boredom, which may drown us first in yawns. - Im sorry for you, Uoht; Im afraid - That all that now you do remind me of, - Is theres no future being human, now. - Een as a babe you were a little dull. - Yes, just a little dull. - UOHT: Well, you may say - What eer you please of me, for queenliness - Hath all its ancient privileges still. - Yet all the same not all times in the past, - Nor all days done. Theres still a future world, - Cassilda, still tomorrow comes, the day - Will dawn, and hours march toward night. O, Queen, - Tis in your power to change our world so much, - Were you not weary of us all, and most - Of all things weary of yourself - CASSILDA: Oh, my - Are we to speak of the Succession now? - As if the siege werent boring us enough-- - Nothings more dull than dynasties. - THALE: Madame, - Must the Dynasty die only because - The Queen is bored? Only one word from you - And the Black Stars would rise aloft again. - Whatever your soothsaying, Mother mine, - Before their light Alar would fade and fall, - And that you know full well. Twould be -- twould be - An act of mercy towards the populace. - CASSILDA: Toward the what? The people? Who are they? - You care as less for them as does Uoht; - Yes, Thale, I read your heart as twere a printed page. - I know your heart and I know his as well. - UOHT: Well, then, you know our hearts. What ist you know? - CASSILDA: The diadem means just this to you both, - It means your sister; aye, and nothing else. - Theres no reward left else but her, no prize - In being King in dull Hastur! As for - Your Black Stars, well, enough of them for aye! - They shine forth nothing but the night, no more. - THALE: I hold Camillas heart. - UOHT: You lie! - CASSILDA: Doth He? - UOHT: Well, ask her if you dare. - THALE: And who would dare? - Without the diadem? Act not more bold, - Mine brother Uoht, than you care to be. - Or have you found the Yellow Sign, O brave? - UOHT: Silence you fool! - CASSILDA: And drop this bickering, - You barking dogs ...and I will ask it her. - THALE: She is not ready to be asked, Madame. - CASSILDA: Not ready, say you, Thale? I say she is. - Camilla, child, come to me; now brush back - Thy pale hair from thy paler face; know - That you could have the diadem, be Queen, - And take your choice of either brother here - To be your Consort. And thus would we reach - The end of all our problems in Camilla. - O, how I tempt you, how I tempt you all! - Thus would the Dynasty continued be, - At least another lifetime added to - The sum of all the lifetimes gone before, - In gray and hoary old Hastur the drear. - And wed be free of this conniving, too: - Why, it could be the very siege might end-- - Well, come Camilla, Speak! - CAMILLA: O, no, no, Please! - Give not the dreaded diadem to me. - I will not bear its burthen on my brows, - Nor hold it heavy in my helpless hands. - CASSILDA: I understand you not: pray tell me why? - CAMILLA: O, ear, O clod gray weight of Fear upon - My faltring heart. Then I should be... - I should be sent the Yellow Sign. - CASSILDA: Perchance. - And perchance not. Perchance tis but a dream, - Lie, myth, illusion dire. Shall we believe - The idle runes that whisper of the thing, - Or mock them back into the realm of dreams? - And if twas sent to you, this Yellow Sign, - What then, O wan and frightened child, what then? - And would it be so very terrible, - This strange, uncanny doom of which you dream, - In dreams of dim and stealthy death that is - Not death at all, but something stranglier... - O speak, Camilla: say what, after all - Happens when one receives the Yellow Sign? - CAMILLA (whispers): I ... It is come for some time in the night; - Come for by whjat, mother, I shall not say - But come for surely, surely. - CASSILDA: This have I heard - But never seen it happen. Monstrous strange! - To start at shadows with no substance there. - And yet suppose that something-- someone-- comes - To take it back. What comes, or who, and why? - Who comes? - CAMILLA: The Phantom of Truth, so tis called ... - CASSILDA: And what, pale child, is that? - CAMILLA: I ... I do not know. - CASSILDA: No more do I, or Thale, Uoht, or anyone! - Let us pretend, Camilla, that tis real; - This Phantom, thine, whatever it might be, - It truly is. Now, does that frighten thee? - But what have the Camillas of this world - To fear from Truth? - CAMILLA: Perhaps Ive naught to fear, - Yet I still fear; fear never yields, you know, - to reason - CASSILDA: Well, so be it, child; and thus - Ill yield the diadem to one of them, - And end this bother in another way. - One remedys as good as any else. - But come and choose between them, brothers both, - But as unlike as night could be from day, - Or light from darkness, or most foul from fair. - Twould pleasure me to see you wed in state - With the regalia and full circumstance; - For at least, twould be a novelty - Midst all this dreary sameness, day by day. - UOHT: A wise suggestion. Come, Camilla, choose! - - THALE: Yes, choose, Camilla! Though tis not the least - Momentum of decision-- - CAMILLA (ignoring their importunement): - O, Mother, there is truly something new - And novel in the weary streets today; - We need no nuptial to alleviate - The tedium of life in dull Hastur-- - Tis what I came to tell you, moments ere - The same old squabble started up again. - CASSILDA: And what is this thats new and novel, child? - CAMILLA: There is a stranger strolling in our streets. - CASSILDA: Say you in sooth? Now, by the living gods, - But hear you that, my princes? ... Would twere true; - But, no, Camilla, Halis creeping mists - Confuse your eye or fuddle your poor wits: - Each face in dreary Hastur do I know - And not one face among them that is new. - How many myriad faces do you think - There are in all this weary world, my child? - A myriad myriad, and I know them all.... - CAMILLA: Yes, mother, but this face is new: or new - At least to me; new in Hastur, tis True. - CASSILDA: No one these days goes down our dismal streets - But the hearse-driver; folks with any sense - Now hide their faces even from themselves, - And turn their looking glasses gainst the wall - For fear of what they see-- - CAMILLA: But that is it: - No one can see the strangers foreign face - For he goes masked adown our dreary streets. - CASSILDA: What, hidden with a hood? Or veiled from view? - CAMILLA: Neither, mother. He wears another face. - A pale mask, paler than the mists, as white - As fear; a face with no expression, and - The eyes are staring, blank. - CASSILDA: Aye, this is strange; - Aye, strange and stranglier ...how doth the man - Explain his Pallid Mask? - CAMILLA: He speaks to none - And none so bold that they would speak to Him. - CASSILDA: Well, I shall see him; he will speak to me, - Or I will have him stretched out on the rack - Ere this dull worlds an hour older. Then, - If only then, the stranger shall unmask. - UOHT (impatiently): Now, mother, this is merely a conceit-- - THALE: Tis of no import, just a trifling leaf - Upon the tree of time. Now to return: - If fair Camilla will but make her choice-- - UOHT: Resuscitating the Succession thus-- - Reviving the Imperial Dynasty-- - CASSILDA (takes diadem from lap, places frimly on brows): - There will be other hours and times to come - And days unborn when we shall think on that. - Till then you have my rule and Hastur has a Queen, - And needs not any King. Camilla does - Not care to choose between her brothers twain, - Nor do I wish her so to choose. Not yet. - Send to me Naotalba now, and send - The stranger in the Pallid Mask. - UOHT: But see! - The sandy granules trickle down the glass! - Tis time itself thats running out at length - For all of us. There has not been a King - In gloomy Hastur since the last Aldones-- - CASSILDA: Do not recite again that tired tale. - Ill list not to that sorry story yet again. - O, the Last King! Tell not his tale once more. - I am so weary of the lot of you: - I warn you all, goad me no more with words. - Hastur will have no other King again - Until the King in Yellow comes to reign! - (there is a long shocked silence. Exit Camilla, pursued by Uoht and Thale. Cassilda rises and goes to the Balcony.) - - I.ii - - CASSILDA (sings): - Along the shore the cloud waves breaks, - The twin suns sink behind the lake, - The shadows lengthen - In Carcosa. - Strange is the night where black stars rise, - And strange moons circle through the skies, - But stranger still is - Lost Carcosa. - Songs that the Hyades shall sing, - Where flap the tatters of the King, - Must die unheard in - Dim Carcosa. - Song of my soul, my voice is dead, - Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed - Shall dry and die in - Lost Carcosa. - - (Enter a CHILD{wearing many jeweled rings and crowned with a smaller duplicate of the diadem}). - CHILD: Grandmother, grandmother, tell me a tale! - CASSILDA: I do not feel like telling stories now, - For tales arent true and lies are lies. I have - No heart for falsehoods now. Tis time for turths. - CHILD (menacingly): Grandmother? - CASSILDA: it must be then .... - CHILD: Thats better. - CASSILDA: a day in dim-remembered days - Appeared amidst Gondwonalands expanse - Twin lakes, both namd by no mans voice: - One great Dehme, the other by the prophets - Name was called. Or would be, days to come. - For age on age their surface went unscanned - By fish eye or the unborn eye of man, - Though blind fish swirld and dipped beneath its glass. - Worlds passed, and one day was left a city, - Dropped as if by a gods forgetful hand, - On Halis shores, abandoned on the strand - (the twin suns have been slowly sinking. The Hyades come out. Their image blurred by the mists) - CHILD: Thats not a story, but a history. - CASSILDA: It is the only tale I have to tell. - Tis time for turths. If you will silent be, - Ill tell all the rest thats in the runes. - CHILD: Im not supposed to know whats in the runes. - CASSILDA: That doesnt matter now. But to go on: - Upon four pillars of uniqueness was - This city built. Of these four was the first - Its birth all in one dawn. Second was this - Queer circumstance: one might not tell of it - Whether it rode upon the waves or on - The farther shore it sat, could one have seen. - The third among the wonders of the city - Was merely this: its towers seemed to pierce - The risen moon like fruits upon a spear. - Wouldst have more, or do I petrify you? - CHILD: But I already know the tale you tell. - CASSILDA: Misfortunate Prince! By now you know too - Well how came that city to be named. - For its fourth singularity was this: - In the moment that it filled ones eye, its - True and only name rushed all unbidden - To the mind. Naught else might it ever bear. - This none doubted; no other name was broached. - CHILD: Carcosa. - CASSILDA: Yes, even as it is today. - And after unknown lengths of years went past, - Men journeyed from the gods know not whereof - To cast up huts rude and impertinent - Against the shadowd waves of Halis Lake. - Among these came forth one who would assume - A kingly crown amid his peers and win - Their dull respect, and yawns as they bow and - Genuflect. His famous name you know. - CHILD: Was that my grandsire? - CASSILDA: It was one of them. - CHILD: Tis great Aldones? - CASSILDA: Yes, him, some ages back. - He judged the place should bear the name Hastur, - Its kings henceforth his name to make their own. - He promised this: should all the sovreigns on - His throne uphold the royal line intact, - Then poor and rude Hastur one day might match - The greatness of Empyrean Carcosa. - CHILD: Thank you, grandmother. I have heard enough... - CASSILDA: No you have not: and on that very night - Someone, it seems, had heard his careless words-- - Child, you asked a tale and now must hear it out-- - CHILD: I have to leave now-- - CASSILDA (eyes closed): And that very night - Your ancestor, he found the Yellow Sign-- - (Child runs out. Enter NOATALBA) - NOATALBA: My Queen. - CASSILDA: Good Priest. - NOATALBA: But you forgot to tell - The little prince of singularities - The fifth and final one. - CASSILDA: And you, I learn, - Are an eavesdropper, quite incurable; - Well, I am not surprised. Priests are supposed - To know all sorts of secrets, and how else - To learn such save with your ear to keyholes? - NOATALBA: And of the final singularity? - CASSILDA: Fear not, O priest! No one were fool enough - To tell the Mystry of the Hyades - To a mere child. - NOATALBA: No, but you thought of it, - My lady Queen. - CASSILDA: Why everyone imputes - Philosophy to poor Cassilda-- thats - Another mystery! My thoughts are few - And shallow, sir; they do not run so deep. - Tis only that the shadows of our thoughts - Commonly lengthen in the afternoon. - And dusk is-- dusk - NOATALBA: Long thoughts long shadows cast, - At morn as well as mid of day, O Queen. - CASSILDA: And lack of news is news enough: well, priest, - Bury me under your banalities, - And join your voice to those of all my sons - Who have been doing nothing else this hour. - Next, youll be prating of the Diadem, - Or of the Dynasty. - NOATALBA: To tell the truth, - Nothing was further from my mind, O Queen. - CASSILDA: And a good place for nothing, that! - NOATALBA: Tis good - To hear you jest, madame; but nonetheless - I do have other news of some import-- - CASSILDA: About a stranger in a Pallid Mask? - NOATALBA: You have already heard of him; tis well, - Then I may be as brief as brief may be. - I think you should not see this man-- if man - Is all he is.... - CASSILDA (laughs): Naught will prevent me, priest! - O, Noatalba, think you Id refuse - To face the first fresh novelty in years - And years, and dusty years. In truth were he - Some sly assassin with a thirsty knife, - Id let him in to look upon his face. - A face Ive never seen... would it were so! - I fear, cold priest, you little know your Queen. - NOATALBA: I know you better than you know yourself. - CASSILDA: And naughts more certain, then, than death and ...gods! - Banalities! I drown in a sea of them; - And why should I not see this man-- for man - Is all he is. - (An interval of silence) - ...a poor spy, then, Id say, - To strut a mask; tis too conspicuous. - And if it came to that, what thing is there - Alar does not already know of us, - As we know all there is to know of them? - Thats why we are at this impasse in our war. - Neither has aught that could the other take - By advantage of surprise. Ah me! - Each of the other knows all that there is - To know. Aye, were one single stone to fall - From Alars wall, and I not know its fall, - This weary war wouldst end in sheer surprise. - And poor Aldones no better off than me. - The man knows me as I know him, each hair - And pinch of skin, each wrinkle, wart, and wen! - Glutted with this familiarity, - Well die slow-stiffing in our tomb-for-two, - Measuring each others hair and figernails - In hopes of some advantage een in death. - Why should he send a spy? He planted three - Of them in this my womb: my bickering, - Dull, brood of children... Noatalba, how - I wish that I could tell my husband aught - Of simple joy, and then would Alar sink - Into its lake and we erelong in ours! - NOATALBA: You prize more highly novelty than I, - My Queen, Methinks it is a weakness of - Some sort or other ... But as for myself - This creature in the Pallid Mask may be - No spy at all; I did not say for sure, - But only that at best he were a spy. - CASSILDA: Well, then, sir priest, lets hear it all. At worst. - NOATALBA: The Phantom of Truth, at the very worst, madame, - This thing may be, for only ghosts would go - About our tired streets in robes of white. - CASSILDA (slowly): And is the moment come at last? I see. - Then I was wise, and wiselier than wise, - To abort the Dynasty: and that is strange. - I am not often wise, you see. Ah, well, - It well may prove perhaps that any end - At all is a good end ...if end it is. - But Noatalba ...Noatalba. - NOATALBA: Speak. - CASSILDA: I have not found the Yellow Sign, you see. - NOATALBA: Of course you havent, other wise you would - Have told me. But we cannot be sure the - Sign is always sent. For the sender is-- - CASSILDA: The sender is the King in Yellow. - NOATALBA: Well ... yes. The King ...warns ...as he warned - The first Aldones. We know nothing of him - But that. And we should not know. - CASSILDA: Why not? - Perhaps he is dead. - (NOATALBA hides his face) - Or too busy in Carcosa, so that he has forgotten - To send the Sign. Why not? We are well taught - That with the King in Yellow, all things are possible. - NOATALBA: I have not heard you. - You did not speak. - CASSILDA: I spoke only to your point, my cold priest ... - That this man n the Pallid Mask may indeed - Be the Phantom of Truth, though I - Have not found the Sign, no more than you. - That was what you were saying, was it not? - Be silent if you wish. I shall chance it. - NOATALBA: Blasphemy! - CASSILDA: Is the King a god? I think not. - In the meantime, Noatalba, I would dearly love - To see the face of Truth. It must be curious. - I have laid every other ghost in this world; - Send me this man or phantom! - (Exit NOATALBA) - - I.iii - (The STRANGER enters. He is wearing a silken robe on which the Yellow Sign is embroidered. CASSILDA turns to look at him, then with a quick and violent motion plucks the torch from the sconce and hurls it into the Lake. Now there is only starlight.) - CASSILDA: I have not seen you! I have not seen you! - STRANGER: You echo your priest, you are all blinded - Obviously by choice. - CASSILDA: I... suppose its - Late to be afraid. Well then; I am not - STRANGER: Well spoken Cassilda. There is in fact - Nothing to be afraid of. - CASSILDA: Please - Phantom, no nonsense. You wear the Sign. - STRANGER: How do you know that? You have never seen - The Yellow Sign. - CASSILDA: Oh, I know it. The Sign - Is in the blood. That is why I ended - The Dynasty. No blood should have to bear - Such knowledge through a human heart; - No childrens teeth so set on edge. - STRANGER: You face facts. That is a good beginning. - Very well; then, in fact this is the Sign. - Nonetheless, Cassilda-- - CASSILDA: Your Majesty-- - STRANGER: --Cassilda, there is nothing to fear. - You see how I wear it with impunity. - Be reassured; it has no power left. - CASSILDA: Is that ...a truth? - STRANGER: It is the shadow - Cast by a truth. Nothing else is ever - Vouchsafed unto us, Queen Cassilda. - That is why I am white: in order to survive - Such colored shadows. And the Pallid Mask - Protects me -- as it will protect you. - CASSILDA: How? - STRANGER: It deceives. That is the function of masks. - What else would it do? - CASSILDA: You are not very full of straight answers. - STRANGER: There are no straight answers. But I tell you this: - Anyone who wears the Pallid Mask need never fear - The Yellow Sign. You Tremble. All the same, - My Queen, that era is over. Whatever else - Could you need to know? Now your Dynasty - Can start again; again there can be a king - In Hastur; and again Cassilda, the Black Stars - Can mount the sky once more against the Hyades. - The siege can be lifted and humankind - Can have its future back. - CASSILDA: So many dreams! - STRANGER: Only wear the Mask and these are given. - Theres no other thing required of us. - CASSILDA: Who tells me this? - STRANGER: I am called Yhtill. - CASSILDA: That is only Alaran for stranger. - STRANGER: And Aldones is only Hasturic - For Father. What would you be implying? - CASSILDA: Your facts are bitterer than your mystries. - And what will happen to you, O, Yhtill, - You with the Yellow Sign on your bosom, - When the sign is sent for? - STRANGER: Nothing at all. - What has Carcosa ever had to do - With the human world, from the time when men - Dwelt on the shore of Hali in mud huts? - The King in Yellow has other concerns - As is only supernatural. - Once you don the Pallid Mask, he cannot - Even see you. Do you doubt me? You have - Only to look again across the Lake. - Carcosa does not sit upon the Earth - It is, perhaps, not even real; or not so real - As you and I. Certainly the Living God does - not believe in it. Then why should you? - CASSILDA: You are plausible, in your ghost face. You talk - As if you know the Living God. Do you - Also hear the Hyades sing to him - When evening has eshrouded all the world? - STRANGER (shortly): No. That is strictly the Kings business. - It is of no earthly interest to me. - CASSILDA: I daresay. How can I trust these answers? - Do we indeed have to do nothing more - To be saved than don white masks? Seems to me - Like a suspiciously easy answer. - STRANGER: Test it then. - CASSILDA: And die. Thank you very much. - STRANGER: I would not kill you, or myself. Instead - I propose a masque, if you will pardon - The word-play. All will wear exactly what they - Choose, excepting that all will also wear - The Pallid Mask. I myself shall wear the - Yellow Sign just as I do now. When all - You are convinced, the masks are removed; - And then you are able to announce - The Succession, all in perfect safety. - CASSILDA: Oh, indeed. - And then the King descends. - STRANGER: And if the King - Should then descend, we are all lost, and I - Have lost my bet. I have nothing to lose - But my life. You have so very much more. - And if the King does not descend, what then? - Think! The Yellow Sign denatured, our life - Suddenly charged with meaning, hope flowring - The Phantom of Truth laid to rest foreer - And the Dynasty freed of all its fears - Of Carcosa and whatever monsters - Do there inhabit, freed of all its fears - Of the King in Yellow and his Tattered - And Smothering and Inhuman raiment! - CASSILDA: Oh Living God! How dare I believe you? - STRANGER: You do not dare not to... - CASSILDA: Why would I not dare? - I who am Cassilda, I who am I? - STRANGER: Because Cassilda, by risking nothing - So you risk it all. Well should you understand - That which is the first law of rulership. - And, too, Cassilda, for in your ancient - Heart, you love your children. - CASSILDA: Oh you demon! - You have found me out. - STRANGER: As I came to do. - Very well. I shall see you tomorrow - After the suns have set. Wear you the Mask, - And all eyes shall be opened, as all - Ears shall be unstoppered. Good night, my Queen. - CASSILDA: If you are human, you shall regret this. - STRANGER: Utterly, and so I wish you good night. - (exit STRANGER, CASSILDA moves to the balcony and looks out. Over the lake the Towers of Carcosa appear, tall and lightless) - (enter NOATALBA) - NOATALBA: So it begins. And so good night, my Queen. - You saw him? - CASSILDA: I ...believe that I did - NOATALBA: And? - CASSILDA: He says that... he says the King in Tatters - Can be blinded. - NOATALBA: And you have heard him out. - Now, surely, we are all indeed quite mad. - (Curtain) - - II.i - (the CHILD appears before the curtain) - - CHILD: I am neither Prologue nor Afterword; - Call me the Prototaph. My role is this: - To tell you it is now to late to close - The book or quit the stage. You already - Thought you should have so much earlier, - But you stayed. How harmless it all must seem! - No definite principles involved, - No doctrines seem to be promulgated - Among these pristine pages. Look close, you! - No convictions herein out outraged... - But nevertheless the blow has fallen - And now it is too late. And shall I tell - Where the sin might lie? It is yours alone. - You listened to us; and all the same, you - Stay to see the Sign. Now you are ours, or, - Since the runes are also run backwards, we - Are yours forever. - (Curtain opens on Ballroom with the balcony behind. STRANGER, CHILD, CAMILLA, NOATALBA and CASSILDA and othe Hasturites all are present.) - Stranger (to CAMILLA): There, my Princess, you see that there has been no - Sending, just as there shall not be one. - The Pallid Mask is the perfect disguise. - CAMILLA: How would we know a sending if it came? - STRANGER: The messenger of the King drives a hearse. - CASSILDA: Oho! Half the population does that. - Tis the citys most popular career - Since the siege began. All of that is talk. - STRANGER: I have heard what the Talkers were talking - The talk of the beginning and the end; - But I do not talk of either of these. - CAMILLA: But of the Sending? Let us hear. - STRANGER: Also, - The messenger of the King is a soft - Man; should you greet him by the hand, youd find - One of his fingers would come off in yours. - (NOATALBA joins the group) - NOATALBA: A pretty story. You would seem to know - Everything of everything. I think that, - Given proper recompense, you could tell - Us of the mystery of the Hyades. - STRANGER: He is the King there. - NOATALBA: As everywhere. - STRANGER: He is not the King in Aldebaran. - That is why Carcosa was built for him. - It is but a city in exile. These - Two mighty stars are tangled deep in war - As are Hastur and Alar. - NOATALBA: Oh, indeed? - Who then lives in fabled Carcossa? - STRANGER: Nothing human resides within her walls. - More than that, I cannot tell you. - NOATALBA: Your springs - Of invention run dry quickly, good sir. - CASSILDA: Be silent, O noisy and noisome priest. - Stranger, how did you come by all of this? - STRANGER: My sigil is Aldeberan, I hate the King. - NOATALBA: And his is the Yellow Sign, which you mock - By flaunting before the world. I say: - He is yet a King, he will not be mocked. - He is a King whom Emperors have served; - And that is why he disdains a crown. - All this is as it is written in the runes. - STRANGER: There are great truths written within the runes - Nevertheless, my priest, Aldebaran - Is his dark star. Thence comes the Pallid Mask. - NOATALBA: Belike, belike. But I would rather be - Drowned deep within the depths of Dehme - Than to wear what you wear on your bosom. - When the King throws wide his mantle-- - (a gong sounds) - CASSILDA: Have done ... - Now is the time I never thought to see: - I must go, and announce the Succession. - Perhaps... perhaps the world itself, how strange, - Is indeed about to begin again! - (gong continues to sound, as the guests unmask) - CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask. - STRANGER: Indeed? Should I now? - CAMILLA: Indeed. It is the time of unmasking, - We have all laid aside disguise but you. - STRANGER: I wear no mask. - CAMILLA: No Mask? (to Cassilda) He wears no mask? - STRANGER: I am the Pallid Mask itself! I! I - Am the Phantom of Truth, come from Alar! - My star is encarmind Aldebaran. - Truth is our invention and our weapon. - See! By this Sign, we have conquered. The siege - Of good and evil is ended... - (beyond the balcony, the towers of Carcosa begin to glow) - NOATALBA: Look! Carcosa! Carcosa is on fire! - (The STRANGER laughs and grabs CAMILLA by the wrists.) - CAMILLA (in agony): His Hands! His Hands! - (At her cry the music dies, a tremendous voice rolls from Carcosa) - THE KING: Yhtill! - Yhtill! - Yhtill! - (STRANGER releases CAMILLA, who falls with a wordless cry.) - THE KING: Have you found the Yellow Sign? - Have you found the Yellow Sign? - Have you found the Yellow Sign? - STRANGER (shouting): Behold! I am the Phantom of Truth! - Tremble, O King in Rags and Tatters! - THE KING: The Phantom of Truth shall be laid to rest. - The scalloped tatters of the King must hide - Yhtill forever. As for thee, Hastur-- - ALL: No! No, no! - THE KING: And as for thee, - We tell thee this; it is a fearful thing - To fall into the hands of a Living God. - (The STRANGER falls, all else sink slowly to the ground after him) - (The stage darkens until it is lit only over the body of the Stranger) - THE KING: I have enfolded Yhtill, and so the - Phantom of Truth now is laid to rest. As - Henceforth the ancient lies shall rule always. - Now, Cassilda! - (CASSILDA rises to her knees) - Thou wert promised by - Truth a Dynasty, and in truth shalt thou - A Dynasty have. - The Kingdom of Hastur was first in all the world, - And would have ruled the world, except for this; - Carcosa did not want it. Hence, thereafter - Hastur and Alar divided; but those in Alar - Sent you from Aldebaran the Phantom of Truth - And all was lost; together you forgot - The Covenant of the Sign. Now there is much - Which needs to be undone. - NOATALBA: How, King, How? - THE KING: Henceforth shall Hastur and Alar be - Divided forever. Forever shalt thou contend - For mastry and strive in bitter blood - To claim which shall be uppermost; - Flesh or phantom, black or white. In due - Course of Starwheels, this strife will come to issue; - But not now; oh, no, not now. - CASSILDA: And-- until then? - HE KING: Until then, - Carcosa will vanish; but my rule, I tell you now, - Is permanent, despite Aldebaran. Be warned. - Also be promised: He who triumphs in this war - Shall be my... can I be honest? ...Inheritor, - And so shall have the Dynasty back. But think: - Already you own the world. The great query is, - Can you rule it? The query is the gift. - The King in Yellow gives it into your hands, - To hold, or let loose. Choose, terrible children. - NOATALBA: You are King, and most gracious. - We thank you. - THE KING: You thank me? I am the Living God! - Bethink thyself, fool priest. There is a price - And I have not as yet stated the half of it. - (pause) - The price is the fixing of the Mask. - (silence) - You do not understand me. I shall explain - Once and then no more. Hastur, you - Acceded to, and wore the Pallid Mask. - That is the price. Henceforth, all in Hastur - Shall wear the Pallid Mask, and by this sign be known. - And war between the masked men and the naked - Shall be perpetual and bloody, until I come - Again... or fail to come. - NOATALBA: Unfair, Unfair! - Twas Alar invented the Pallid Mask! - Aldones-- - THE KING: Why should I be fair? I am - The Living God! As for Aldones, he - Is the father of you all. That is the price: - The Fixing of the Mask. - ALL: Oh! - CASSILDA (bitterly): Not upon us, O King; not upon us! - ALL: No! Mercy! Not upon us! - THE KING: Yhtill! - Yhtill! - Yhtill! - CASSILDA (stands and throws her arms wide): - Not upon us! Not upon us! - THE KING: What! Did you think to be human still? - NOATALBA: And if we now cannot return to what - We were, O, King, What shall we be? - What shall we be? - What shall we be? - - (The CHILD rises and draws the curtain) - (End) *zurück zu Mythosbücher